New collaboration to fight TB

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine have joined together with staff from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) to develop new devices to test for Tuberculosis (TB).

TB remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases, killing more people each year than any other infection The World Health Organization has warned that countries are not doing enough to fight the condition and drug-resistant TB remains a global public health crisis. They have identified access to affordable, reliable, user-friendly and rapid medical diagnostic tests as of critical importance globally.

Paul Elkington, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, will work with Professor Robert Eason (ORC) and Dr Collin Sones (ORC), who have expertise in paper based diagnostics, to develop a test that will deliver results at a patient’s bedside instead of waiting days for results to be returned from a laboratory.

The aim to is to develop a test, using smart-gate technology, that will provide a semi-quantitative measurement of a number of disease-related biomarkers simultaneously.

The collaboration is being funded through a £540,000 grant from the EPSRC and has been established through links via the NAMRIP network and the Institute for Life Sciences.

Related Staff Member

Paul Elkington is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton within Medicine. He leads a research group studying pulmonary tuberculosis, specifically identifying how infection destroys the lungs and how this can lead to new diagnostic tests and treatments to combat the global pandemic.